Saint by Ted Dekker

On the outside, Saint looks like it has nothing to do with Showdown, its predessecor. But don't worry. Once you dig deeper, deeper than its two covers, you will find the connection.

Carl wakes up beside a crying woman he believes is his wife. He knows he and his family have been kidnapped by black ops. But why? His question is answered when the black ops tell him to kill someone. Someone very specific; someone they want to rid the world of. If Carl does not fulfill his mission, his family will die.

As Carl falls deeper and deeper into the new world, he discovers that no one is who they say they are-not even himself. He also discovers that he has suddenly become one of the world's best snipers. He has excellent marksmanship is shooting. He never misses.

They call him Saint. He doesn't know why. I don't either.

Saint

once again demonstrates Dekker's deep-seated originality he has within him. When I first started reading it, I had no idea how it was going to connect with Showdown. But in the end, it did; in a very interesting way.

The downside to this book is the lack of realistic characters. One of the pluses was that they were imperfect.

Dekker truly surprises the reader with who some of the characters really are. This combined with a good writing style makes for an interesting read.

A setting like the one in Saint can easily be abused and made unrealistic because of the black ops touch. But Dekker actually made the setting very original and believable.

In this book, Dekker not only ties the Project Showdown series to the Circle, but it also ties House to the Circle in a slightly far-fetched way.

The main thing keeping this book from being five stars is the generally expected end. But coming with this end is loose ends. Dekker didn't tie everything up. He left our characters in a non-typical place. But this is something he could fix in the third book.

All in all, Project Showdown is probably better than the Circle overall.

4 stars